Arrival in Morocco

Sometimes it is just not possible to outsmart our natural body systems! I thought if we took an overnight flight to Morocco, we would be able to sleep on the plane and arrive rested and refreshed. aWRONG! The flight left DC at about 5:30, which is too early to be able to fall asleep. Five hours later, when it would have been our normal sleep time, we were able to doze on and off a bit, but certainly no solid sleeping took place. We arrived in Madrid, Spain, to change planes just 7 and a half hours after take off.

Those who have ever traveled through the Madrid airport can sympathize with the long and confusing connections! We took a bus from one terminal to another via about 10 minutes of freeway driving! Then we took escalators up and up, walked and took escalators down and down! Finally, though, we found the lounge we were booked into and were able to relax, enjoy light snacks, coffee etc. and doze a bit more before boarding the hour and a half flight to Rabat.

Now, think back to watching the movie “Casablanca”, where Elsa and her husband have to walk from the hanger-type office to the small 2-engine plane. Then change the 2 prop engines to 2 jet engines, and add a passport check and baggage claim to the hanger. Make the scene daylight rather than night fog, and you have a fairly good image of what it was like coming into the Rabat airport. The “hanger” had a couple of small shops and a separate waiting area, but you don’t see that right away.

My new boss picked us up at the airport and delivered us to our new apartment, where we met our “sponsor”, who will be showing us the ropes of life in Rabat. Nick is very nice and had an assortment of food, fruit, cookies, etc. already in the apartment for us.

Although there are only 2 of us here, the apartment is quite big and very formally decorated. We have come up in the world! There is a kitchen, which is the only not-so-nice room in the place. It is dark, with very little counter space. But we can live with it! Then there is a formal dining room, a living room, an office, a master bedroom and bath, a guest bedroom, and 2 more bathrooms! There is also a private covered terrace and a laundry room!

After a short nap, we went to Nick’s house for a cookout – homemade carne asada, with homemade salsa and guacamole, which was all exceptional! We were able to meet a few more people from the embassy too. And Nick programmed our new GPS with his favorites so we can find our way around the area to main places of interest like stores and markets! It was a great way to end our first day in Rabat.